Bike For Orphans

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

The World’s largest zoo

I was reminded
recently of the fact that some people are new to my journals and may not really
understand what this trip is about. I wanted to address a few of those points now.

My bike trip
started out as a way to see the world and to share with others the people,
culture and food of people and places they may never see. My plan was and
remains to bike 50,000 km through approximately 40 countries and to provide a
travelogue of the view from a bicycle. The world is a diverse place and I have
already written about the people and places in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore,
Indonesia, Australia and now Canada. There are many interesting places to come.
I hope to get a visa for Iran when I head back over the ocean, and will have to
go through the former Russian countries of Central Asia. Other countries like
Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Kyrgyzstan and Japan are ones I am excited to see.

In 2011, I
spent 6 months volunteering with the Missionaries of Charity orphanage in
Tacloban. I fell in love with the Filipino people and my heart went out to the
kids that had a bleak future. In 2013, I flew down to Davao, Oriental and met
David Donaldson. In 2009, David established a foundation and created the Angel
House Orphanage. He used his own savings to build a home for the kids and then
started accepting children who were referred to him by the Department of Social
Welfare. During our meeting, I was made aware of how costly it was to operate
an orphanage. He hired 5 full time care workers who lived in the home with the
children. He also had to hire a full time social worker to deal with the
government on the complicated issues of foreign adoption. The entire operation
was financed by David and through individual donors. He has to provide food, shelter,
medical care, clothing and school supplies for up to 15 children. He then has
to pay property taxes, electricity bills, and gas for the vehicle he needs to
transport the children etc., etc. It was at this point that I offered to try
and support the orphanage in my bicycle trip around the world. The idea was to
promote the Angel House Orphanage through my journals and to encourage people
to read the Angel House Orphanage website.

In the past
few months I have had a few people question why they should support me while I
am touring the world. I think there is a perception that by giving to me they
are actually financing my travels and nothing could be further from the truth. It
is very upsetting to hear that because I provide 100% of my own support. I have
never asked for financial assistance and any money raised is simply passed to
Angel House. I pay for my own food, accommodation, bike repairs, flights,
ferries etc. As a non-resident for tax purposes in Canada, I don’t even have
healthcare and pay for my own private coverage. Any money I receive is given to
David. If someone provides me something for free I track the value of that meal
and provide that as a donation to Angel House. In Malaysia, Jorlyn Tan, someone
who didn’t know me, gave me a room in her hotel for free and I donated the
value of that to Angel House. That same day on 2 different occasions, people I
didn’t know paid for a meal and I also donated the value of those meals. The
idea is that I will keep the chain going of any random acts of kindness from
complete strangers and donate the value of the gift to help the children. Last
week I sent David $500 U.S, representing cash and in-kind assistance provided
by people in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and Canada. I have even
been picking up coins on the road as I pass through. I enter the coins on a
spreadsheet (Accountants love spreadsheets) and after 2 years will donate that
as a gift from all the people in the world who have holes in their pockets.

There are some
very hard days when you bicycle around the world. In the past few weeks alone I
had lightning, hail, 50 km headwinds and high mountains to deal with. What keeps
me going are pictures like this one from the Angel House Orphanage.

Angel House
Kids

Most people
would look at this photo and see 3 happy boys but I see something different. In
2011, when I was volunteering at the orphanage in Tacloban, a young child died
from severe malnutrition. Every one of the 32 children there were literally
starving to death before the Missionaries of Charity stepped up to bring them
back to health. So, when I see that picture above, I see 3 boys abandoned at
the hospital with absolutely no chance in life. They would not be able to go to
school and life would be a struggle from their first breath to last. I see
David and his staff accepting those kids and providing them a home with good
food and someone to read the bedtime stories, celebrate birthdays and provide a
home when there wasn’t one. The photo also breaks my heart because it is their
first day of school, and they will never experience having a parent walking
with them on a memorable occasion. They have missed family birthdays, family
camping trips, sitting around playing games and all the other things we did with
our parents and that we take for granted. David and his staff jumped in to help
when no one else did and now these 3 happy boys have a chance at life. That is
why I am riding my bike around the world and why I keep going despite feeling
lonely and wishing I was back in my comfortable condo watching the World Cup
soccer games. It is a choice I made but if anyone suggests that I somehow
profit financially from cycling the world, nothing could be further from the
truth.

The town of
Whitehorse is the capital of the Yukon territories and where I spent a few days
recovering from the difficult ride down the Dempster and Klondike Highways. I
loved the town, it has all the conveniences you could want and I stayed in a
youth hostel with comfortable beds and showers, a few of the simple things I’ve
have been missing. Whitehorse has a population of about 28,000 but has the
facilities of a far larger city. There is even a Starbucks, which of course I
was quick to notice, I seem to have a gift for finding coffee shops. The entire
territory of the Yukon only has 37,000 people so if you exclude the capital city;
there are about 9,000 people in the rest of the Territory. In the same area there
are 150,000 caribou, 50,000 moose, 22,000 mountain sheep, 10,000 black bears,
7,000 grizzly bears and 5,000 wolves. I was biking through the world’s largest
zoo without a fence to keep the animals away.

The Alaska
Highway was constructed during World War 2 for the purpose of connecting the
contiguous U.S with Alaska. It starts in Dawson Creek, British Columbia (as
opposed to Dawson City, Yukon) and ends in Delta Junction, Alaska crossing the
southern Yukon. I will follow the highway for over 1,000 km.

The highway
was built by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers as a supply route during World War
2. Canada agreed to allow construction through British Columbia and the Yukon
as long as the U.S bore the full cost and that the road and other facilities
would be turned over to Canada after the war ended. Not a bad deal for Canada
and the U.S agreed. More than 10,000 soldiers came north with 250,000 tons of
materials. Rather than proceeding from one point in one direction, one group
started in the north and the other the south and they met up in the middle. The
method was simple. Surveyors worked roughly 10 miles ahead of the bulldozers
and the men who cleared the path. The surveyors would map the route and the men
behind would catch up and blaze a path. A battalion of bulldozers cleared the
way by knocking down trees in a path roughly 50 to 90 feet across. Once the
path was cleared, a second battalion brought up the rear, flattening the road
surface. It wouldn’t pass the environmental tests required today but the job
was done in less than 8 months. It would take far longer just to get all the
permits to build today.

Alaska
Highway

I headed off
early and continued south along the Alaska Highway.

Snow capped
mountains

It didn’t take
long to realize that there really are more bears than people in the Yukon. The
forests on the sides of the road were cut well back leaving a wide swathe of
grass between the road and the trees, the perfect feeding ground for bears. It
became a daily occurrence to spot them feeding on the side of the road and that
presented a problem for me. The grass is high so I can see the top of a large
adult bear but could not see if there were cubs nearby. There are a few things
that will make a bear attack a human. The first is if you suddenly come upon
them without them hearing you, you scare them and they can react aggressively.
You also want to avoid them if they are eating and since they are fiercely
protective of their young, you have to keep your distance when cubs are in the
area. Bears are like people, they like to eat and they protect their young so
if you accept that you are in their area and give them lots of space you will
be fine. However, with them feeding on the side of the road, I had to get past.

My usual
routine when I spotted a bear would be to stop and make sure they knew I was
there. I carried 2 pot lids in my front handlebar bag and would clang them
together when I spotted one or more feeding. I would then yell out and make
sure they saw me. In a few cases they would run but most of the time they just
kept on eating. Since I was not sure if the cubs were around and they were so
close to the road, I would wait for a car, wave it down and then ask for them
to drive slowly so I can use the car as a shield. One day I stopped cycling 5
times in a single day to wait for a car to provide cover. The local people said
they have never seen so many bears. One man said that because of the late
winter, the berries were not ready so the bears came down from the mountains to
find food.

One morning,
just as I headed off, I spotted a small grizzly bear on the side of the road.
They are distinctive because of their large hump and brown colour to go along
with their massive size.The cub was
less than a year old and grizzly bears can rear their young for up to 5 years so
I was concerned about the presence of his mother. I waited for a car to wave
down to escort me and kept my distance. On the other side of the road a
transport truck was coming my way and suddenly, the small grizzly ran out and
across the road and was struck by the truck. Another beautiful animal killed on
the highway. It is devastating for the grizzly bears because they don’t have a
lot of cubs in their lifetime so the population is struggling to maintain
itself. It also presented a problem for me as I was alone on the road about 100
meters from a dead grizzly cub and if the mother was around it would see me as
the one responsible. I backed away and spent a nervous 15 minutes waiting for a
car. Eventually one came and I explained there was a young grizzly ahead that
was just hit by a truck and I needed to have a car beside me to get past. The
man drove slowly with me on the side and when he came to the bear, I didn’t
realize that he stopped to take photos of the dead cub. I kept going thinking
he was beside me but I was on my own in the middle of the road near a dead
grizzly cub. I waited for the man for about 5 minutes and then cycled back to
him and stayed near the car. I don’t think he really understood what I was
trying to do because he then drove forward and accelerated so I was again left
on my own until another car came by and escorted me.

When I was in
the small town of Nuggett City, I was checking into a campsite when a message
came over the owner’s phone. I was told that a black bear had just jumped
through the screen window of the staff building about 50 meters from where we
were standing. Once a bear gets that close to people there is no choice but to
shoot it and minutes later, a series of shots rang out. The bear was shot and
got away but the men with guns followed it to ensure it was dead. We were
initially told that all people in tents would have to sleep in the lodge but
later we were told we could go back outside.

I had bear
escorts from motorcyclists, trucks and cars. One day I tried to wave down a car
because of a large black bear right on the side of the road. A car approached
and I stopped cycling to wave them down. For some reason, they thought I was
stopping my bike on the middle of the highway, in the middle of nowhere, just
to turn around and wave to complete strangers. They both smiled and waved back enthusiastically
and promptly drove on. I still wonder if they ever think that maybe I needed
help. A truck drove by and noticed that I was trying to wave down a car and he
understood because he too saw the bear ahead. He stopped and set off a bear
banger, a pen-like instrument that shoots off a flare and large bang. He aimed
it near the bear and after he fled, the truck driver beeped his horn giving me
the all-clear signal.

On another day
I was biking along and a black bear darted out beside me, no more than a few
meters to my side. He ran away from me but I wanted to give him some space so I
crossed the road to cycle on the other side. Just as I reached the other side,
a black bear lifted his head no more than a few arms lengths away. I turned and
he just stared at me as he continued to eat. They are incredibly beautiful
animals but when you are that close it really gets your heart racing.

Black bear

The southern
Yukon is beautiful with blue lakes; mountains, rivers and I enjoyed mostly
clear skies.

Clean fresh
air in the Yukon

The Alaska
Highway roughly follows the boundary between the southern Yukon Territory and
the northern province of British Columbia, and it goes between the two borders
a number of times as you head east. In Northern British Columbia I arrived at
the beautiful Muncho Lake. It is a small lake about 12 km long and surrounded
by small mountains. The jade green color is attributed to the presence of
copper oxide in the bedrock under the water.

Muncho Lake

Bears weren’t
the only wildlife that I had the privilege of observing. One day I was cycling
along and a female moose was on the side of the road. She was startled and as I
approached she started running along the road ahead of me. They are very fast
and she easily increased the distance from me but did not get off the road so
eventually I was close behind again. At one point she turned off and I thought
that was the end but soon after rounding a corner, there she was again standing
there looking back at me. Instead of simply getting off the road, she kept
running. This continued for about 3 km and eventually she got tired and decided
to get off the highway.

I also saw a
number of Bison and one day came across a small herd. The American bison can
stand up to 6 feet at the shoulders and weigh up to 1,000 kg or 2,200 lbs. The
males in particular can be very aggressive and as I did with the bears, waited
for a car to provide an escort. This bison noticed me on the bike and kept
watching as I took a photo while beside a car. He didn’t look happy and he kept
staring at me. I had a car beside me so boldly asked him what he was staring at
but he wasn’t amused. Some bison just don’t have a sense of humour.

Bison keeping
his eye on me

It is a long
stretch between Whitehorse and Dawson Creek and I kept heading in a southeasterly
direction. I always tried to make it to a campsite at night because of the
large number of bears in the area, I wouldn’t feel comfortable cooking dinner
and camping. I would filter drinking water directly from the rivers, sleep in
the fresh air and really enjoyed being outside 24 hours a day. One day a few wild
horses passed on my side, exactly the same thing that happened in the Outback
of Australia.

Wild horses

The terrain
was hilly but I slowly crossed the northern edge of the Rocky Mountains.

Hills

I soon came to
Liard Hot Springs, the second largest hot spring in Canada. There are 2 hot
springs with water temperatures ranging from 42C to 52C (108F to 126F). They
were too hot for me so I just sat with my tired legs dangling in the water and
enjoyed the spectacular scenery. One of the pools was permanently closed
because of the large number of bears in the area. In 1997, a much publicized
black bear attack that killed 2 tourists eventually resulted in the closure of a
few of the pools. In 1998, at least 50 bears were killed to ease the concern of
the public. It seems tragic and unbelievable to me that they would kill so many
bears just so tourists can sit in water. Surely that was an excessive response
to the problem. I wonder why they couldn’t just built an enclosed walkway to
prevent future attacks.

Liard Hot
Springs

I saw a number
of mountain sheep as I headed east. This small group was on the side of the
road and it was the young ones that seemed to be more concerned with my presence.
The little sheep furthest from me made me laugh. He or she first noticed me and
ran off up the hill in sheer terror. At one point it realized that no one else
was following so turned around and sprinted back down the hill to stand by it’s
mother. All the while, the mother calmly sat grazing on the side of the road,
seemingly oblivious to my presence.

Young sheep
on guard

Another
mountain sheep watched me pass. It is a real treat to watch them effortlessly
run up the mountains. They could even give the Sherpas in Nepal a lesson on how
to climb up hills.

Mountain
sheep

The route I
chose followed the Alaska Highway to Dawson Creek and then south towards
Jasper. That means that I would end up on the east side of the Rocky Mountains
and then back track west again as I approached the resort town. After climbing
some reasonable mountains I was clear of the hills for a short time.

Leaving the
mountains behind

Despite all
the wildlife, the biggest danger to me on the roads is a modern man made
invention, the motorhome. Since the 1950’s, homes have become larger and larger
despite smaller families and the average motorhome has followed a similar path.
I would see a steady stream of these behemoths on a daily basis with most
towing a car behind. They were massive and almost always only had 2 people in
them. In one campsite I was invited in and couldn’t believe the luxurious
interiors, resembling a 5-star hotel. I was sitting in a lush swivel chair
staring at the leather couch, large flat screen TV with satellite, shower,
large bed and every imaginable convenience. It was a slight step down as I left
the home to return to my small tent with a mat and sleeping bag.

Home on
wheels

I passed the
12,000 km mark on my way past Fort Nelson and would soon go over 12,500 meaning
I was now 25% of my way around the world. It is a long way since I left Bangkok
and it seems almost inconceivable that I still have over 37,000 km to go.
Whoever said the world is small did not try to get around it on a bicycle.

12,000 km
since Bangkok

I was heading
east one day and stopped at a small store for a drink. As I was leaving I noticed
some dark clouds ahead. I was debating whether to stop and go back to the store
until the storm passed or keep moving forward and ended up making the right
decision in stopping. A short while later winds of up to 70kmh raced through
with large hail and lightning. I ended up waiting for 4 hours before continuing
on my way.

Time to turn
around

I was suddenly
in a very different looking country with no mountains in sight.

Where did the
mountains go?

That did not
last long however as I turned west and headed towards Jasper. One of the great
things about riding a bike is you can slowly see changes in the geography. I
could see the Rocky Mountains coming into view and they were getting closer
with each pedal stroke.

Slowly
approaching the Rockies

Approaching
the Rocky Mountains

Soon I was at
the eastern border of Jasper National Park.

Jasper
National Park

The park is
home to thousands of elk and I had a close view of these magnificent animals.
The elk is one of the largest species of the deer family and the antlers on a
male can grow up to 4 feet in height.

A bull elk

Elk relaxing
near Jasper

I had a few
days rest in Jasper and enjoyed the small town nestled in the Rocky Mountains.
The town isn’t as commercial as the ones further south but it has more than
it’s share of beautiful scenery.

Quiet River
in Jasper, Alberta

The road
between Jasper and Banff, Alberta is the Icefields Parkway. It stretches about
250 km through the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and provides a
panoramic view of mountain lakes, ancient glaciers and broad sweeping valleys.
On my first morning after riding for a day on the Parkway I opened my tent to
see this guy. She was completely disinterested in me so I simply continued with
my normal morning routine of taking down my tent and cooking breakfast while
she stared out in the distance.

Elk in front
of my tent

The views on
the Parkway were incredible and it was hard to make forward progress with
wanting to simply take in the scenery. I would regularly take breaks to sit and
just soak in the scenery.

Rivers and
mountains

Peaks and
valleys

There would be
rivers and lakes on one side, snow capped mountains all around and often
waterfalls with glacial rivers carrying the melted ice and snow from above.
This is the Athabasca waterfall in Jasper Park.

Athabasca
Falls

The Columbia
Icefield is a massive glacier up to 300 meters thick in some areas. The most
visible part of the Icefield is the Athabasca Glacier.

Athabasca
Glacier

Since 1870, the
Athabasca Glacier has lost more than tow-thirds of its volume and more than
half of its surface area. On the day I was there, it was 34C and it is hard to
believe that in those temperatures I was so close to ice. Since the Glacier has
become so famous, what is a tourist site without the obligatory viewing platform?

Viewing
platform

You have to
get tickets at the information center and I was planning on doing it but was
turned off by the hundreds of tourist groups already in line. Not that it
wouldn’t have been fun standing in line with 300 Chinese tourists but I thought
I could get better views from my bike.

Part of the
Icefields

Year round
snow

There are 2
mountain passes over 2,000 meters high on the Parkway and here is a view from
Sunwapta Pass looking north. I had climbed up and now looked forward to a long
descent.

View from
Sunwapta Pass

The Jasper
National Park is continuous with the Banff National Park. I reached
Saskatchewan crossing between Jasper and Banff and noticed a lot of police cars
on the road. I was told that the highway was going to be closed in an hour
because of a forest fire nearby. I decided to keep going before they closed the
road. Here is a view as I cycled up in the smoke.

Fire alert

Most of the
traffic stopped so it was eerie cycling through what looked like mist-covered
mountains. The smoke only lasted about 20 km but it was starting to irritate my
throat. I found a campsite and the next day, the skies cleared and I was back
to some beautiful scenery as I headed towards Banff.

Crystal clear
lake

View near
Banff

One of the
things I really like about the Banff National Park is the care they take to try
and prevent collisions between cars and animals. They have a large fence built
along the entire length of the highway and to allow the animals to cross they
have constructed a number of animal bridges. I wonder how many places in the
world have bridges across highways, just for animals?

Animal
bridge

The stretch
from Lake Louise to Banff follows the old highway and it was one of the best roads
for cycling of my entire trip. It is a quiet narrow tree lined road with spectacular
views.

Off the main
road

I finally made
it to Banff.

Another
milestone

It has been
almost 3,800 km since I left Inuvik above the Arctic Circle. I cycled the
entire length of the Yukon territories, east along most of the northern
boundary of British Columbia and south through a good portion of Alberta. I am
tired from the constant hills but feel incredibly grateful to have seen so much
wildlife and scenery that photos just can’t do justice to. I store all of my
photos on Flickr and you can see a lot more of this beautiful country here,

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fredbouwman/

I have decided
to change my route as I slowly head south towards Mexico. I will be cycling
home to southern Ontario to visit with my family and then south down the Atlantic
coast of the U.S to visit friends in North Carolina. My friends Brian and
Jennifer had a health scare last week and even though the results of the tests
were negative, it was a timely reminder of the fragility of life and I want to
take the time now to visit family and friends. I will be going to Calgary in 2
days and then south to Glacier National Park in the U.S and then east through
Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and then back
into Canada. I will continue south after going east and will eventually end up
in Mexico but it will take a little more time.

At the end of
each journal entry I have been providing a brief summary of what is going on at
the Angel House Orphanage. I only provide a synopsis and a picture or two because
I would prefer to have people go to the website themselves to read more about
what David and his staff are doing. The website has photos of all the kids
along with regular updates on what is happening and I don’t want to repeat that
here. My purpose is to get readers to follow that website which can be found
here,

(http://www.angelhousephilippines.org)

I spent 6
weeks in Tacloban after typhoon Yolanda last November, I was able to witness
first hand how foreign aid operates and had a good education on the pros and
cons of providing relief. I will give an example of some of the negative
aspects. When I was there, various organizations set up locations where people
would line up daily for food, clothing or even cash. I was at one of the
stations and watched bags of clothing being distributed to the locals. In one
bag that was a donation from South Korea, they pulled out a nice winter coat.
The local family ended up cutting the coat to make rags that they could use to
clean their home that was full of mud. The point is that despite the good
intention of that gift, it wasn’t really practical for life in the tropical
climate of the Philippines. Another negative aspect of donating clothing is
that you put the local clothes sellers out of business because people are
getting things for free. Again, well-intentioned gifts end up creating
unemployment in the local community exactly when the people should be going
back to work. I mention these few examples because David at the Angel House has
figured out a perfect solution to this problem. It is difficult for someone on
the other side of the world to know what is most needed so David set up a
virtual store on his website (see the section called Virtual Store). He lists
items that the orphanage needs and people can set up a donation accordingly.
This accomplishes a few things. First, the children get exactly what they need
because the staff know what is required and second, you don’t have to spend the
money to send things via mail. In many cases, the cost of the package is more
than the amount of the goods you can buy in the Philippines.

There are a
number of other ways to help the orphanage. You can donate cash that David can
use to finance the operating costs. People often overlook the costs of
electricity, gas, cooking fuel and even the personal hygiene costs to manage 15
children and the staff. There are also the daily costs of food, medicine and
school supplies.

Another way to
help would be to sponsor a child. You can contact David on his website and
arrange to donate on a monthly basis or with a single payment. He can provide
you with information on all of the children and keep you up to date on their
progress in school or the likelihood of being adopted.

A final way to
help would be to spread the word of Angel House. If you are on Facebook, please
share the link to the orphanage and ask your friends to share also. Someone out
there is thinking of adopting a child and if you can spread the word, you
increase the chance that it will be a Filipino child that finds a home. There
is a sense of urgency because the risk the child is not adopted increases, as
they get older, most people want a young child. This is a particular problem
with boys like the ones in the photo above. Please don’t let that happen to
these kids. They have had a difficult start to life without parents and without
a family. You can make a real difference in their lives; take a few moments to really
think about it.

2 comments:

Thanks for everything you are doing to help Angel House and your comments about our children brought tears to my eyes! Keep safe and please don't get eaten by any of the animals!David and all the staff and children at Angel House.